With your support this Give to the Max Day, we can make the Christmas season a little brighter for Carver county families in need!

You can help us fill a table with holiday food! This Christmas season, Love INC will provide 150 families in need with a holiday basket filled with nutritious, healthy fresh and frozen foods. By making a donation on Give to the Max Day, your gift will help us ensure one less family spends this Christmas with empty plates and empty stomachs.

Each year, generous supporters like you celebrate Give to the Max Day by making your online donation on GiveMN.org. Your generosity on this day makes a difference far beyond the 24-hour giving event!

Please join us on November 16, 2017, for Give to the Max Day and help us continue to transform lives and our community in the name of Christ. Our goal is to raise $6,000 to help fund our Christmas food baskets this year, and you can help us reach it! Be sure to mark your calendar and make your gift on November 16 by visiting GiveMN.org and scheduling your donation.

Greetings on behalf of the Board of Directors of Love In the Name of Christ of Eastern Carver County. Each of us considers it a privilege and an honor to serve our community and our churches in this way. We greatly appreciate the many of you who have supported this ministry either by volunteering, making financial or product donations, or just telling people about Love INC. Please explore our new website, www.loveincecc.org, and take some time to learn more about the services provided by the churches that make up Love INC. The Board consists of 13 members representing the partner churches. It meets monthly to plan and oversee the work of Love INC of Eastern Carver County. We also work to raise financial resources to cover ministry expenses and set plans that will provide support to continued growth and expansion of the work.

The work of Love INC is bringing the member churches together to offer ministries that meet needs identified by those who call seeking assistance. Love INC seeks to mobilize members of the churches to meet our neighbors’ needs in practical and manageable ways. Beginning in 2007 with just 8 partner churches, now 24 of the 30 churches of Eastern Carver County are official partners with Love INC, and several others join in on specific projects. This is a collaborative effort that is special to watch and see the difference being made for those in need.

Whether you attend of one of our partner churches or not, you are welcome to join this movement of Christians in our community who volunteer their time and energy to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors. The members of our churches and the pastors of our community are getting to know one another and are working together. We also are seeing more and more church engagement in community efforts and community discussions, and that is a good thing!

It’s been great to see unity in Christ develop as members of the churches in eastern Carver County are getting acquainted, and in some cases growing very close in relationship with one another. It represents exciting times now, and even more exciting times ahead, as we as Christians are growing in our capacity to bring help and hope to individuals and families. We are humbly learning from one another, and are enjoying fellowship across denominations. We are discovering how great an impact can be made when we work together, seek God’s help through prayer, encourage one another in our faith, and seek practical ways to put our faith into action right here in our community.

We hope you find value in the website and we hope you engage in some way. Whether you are in need of help, living in abundance, or somewhere in between—we invite you to consider engaging to love others in the name of Christ. We are all in this together. It is the spirit of community and the invitation of Christ himself.

Love INC of Eastern Carver County is a partnership of local churches working together to help families and individuals in need in our community. When Love INC was started here about six years ago, there were eight churches that came together to provide help for today and hope for tomorrow. Over the course of these six years, we have experienced amazing and steady growth. Today, we are excited to welcome our 24th partner church to our Love INC network! On December 6th, Pastor Matt Bersagel, of Crown of Glory Lutheran Church, stopped in with the official Partner Church Agreement and a big smile on his face, to make Crown of Glory our newest official church partner.

Partner churches are critical to helping Love INC accomplish its mission of “mobilizing churches to transform lives and our community in the name of Christ.” Yet, it’s not onerous or difficult to become a partner church. Its simply a matter of making an effort to participate in the Love INC ministry. There are just seven basic commitments that are made:

1. Support the Apostle’s Creed, traditional statement of faith of the Christian Church.

2. Pray for Love INC.

3. Encourage unity in Christ by working in partnership with other churches in the community.

4. Recruit a Church Ministry Coordinator who will serve as the liaison between the church and Love INC.

5. Assess the gifts, talents, and skills of people within the church to find those who could help people in need in the community.

6. Promote Love INC service opportunities in various groups within the church.

7. Give financial support that is proportionate to the size and means of the church.

So, congratulations and a big welcome to Crown of Glory Lutheran Church for their new partnership with Love INC of Eastern Carver County. We are glad you are here.